EVALUATION OF THE SYSMEX NE-8000 - AUTOMATED HEMATOLOGY ANALYZER IN AHIGH-VOLUME OUTPATIENT LABORATORY

An evaluation of SYSMEX NE-8000 (Toa Medical Electronics Co., Ltd., Ko be, Japan) hematology analyzer, including its automated five-part whit e blood cell (WBC) differential count, was performed in a high-volume outpatient laboratory. Precision, mixing studies, stability, carry-ove r, and linearity were all within the limits stated by the manufacturer . Evaluation of the five-part WBC differential revealed excellent corr elation with manual differential neutrophil and lymphocyte counts. Mon ocyte, eosinophil, and basophil data were acceptable given the known p oor precision of 200 cell manual WBC differential counts when low perc entages of individual cell types are present. Overall, flagging for mo rphologic abnormalities displayed a sensitivity of 87% and a specifici ty of 97%. The combination of the flagging system with the visual reco rd provided by the NE-8000 WBC histogram represents an effective tool for separating normal from abnormal specimens, and allows considerable selectivity in the performance of follow-up manual WBC differential c ounts.